Supreme Court, Kings County

In a premises liability action, the plaintiff alleged serious injuries after a slip and fall at defendant’s nursing home. The plaintiff was a phlebotomist from a hospital laboratory who went to the defendant nursing home to draw blood from residents. The plaintiff claimed to have fallen in a resident’s room because there was allegedly soapy water underneath a bedside mat. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant’s staff negligently created a dangerous and hazardous condition by spilling and/or failing to clean up soapy water after bathing a resident. The defense argued that there was no evidence of a spill and that the plaintiff and her husband, who claimed he was called and came to the scene of the accident immediately, were not credible about the supposed existence of soapy water under and near the mat. This was a bifurcated trial. The jury found that the defendant’s premises were in a reasonably safe condition at the time of the plaintiff’s alleged accident. Had the matter continued to a trial of damages, the plaintiff intended to claim that she suffered head, neck, chest, back and right shoulder injuries, including a torn rotator cuff, need for three shoulder surgeries, implantation of a neurostimulator device at the level of the cervical spine and complex regional pain syndrome (reflex sympathetic dystrophy). The plaintiff’s demand throughout the trial was $2,500,000.